Boris Johnson warning on Syria

The US could launch new strikes against Syria, Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has warned as he says Moscow still has time to be on the "right side of the argument" in the conflict.

Johnson was widely criticised for failing to get the G7 to back his bid for new sanctions against senior Russian and Syrian figures in the aftermath of the chemical weapons attack on civilians in Idlib province.

But he maintained a tough stance on Bashar Assad, branding the Syrian president an "arch terrorist".

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Johnson said: "Assad uses chemical weapons because they are not only horrible and indiscriminate. They are also terrifying.

"In that sense he is himself an arch-terrorist, who has caused such an unquenchable thirst for revenge that he can never hope to govern his population again.

"He is literally and metaphorically toxic, and it is time Russia awoke to that fact. They still have time to be on the right side of the argument."

The Foreign Secretary insisted it was "highly likely" Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons atrocity as Johnson insisted America "could of course strike again".

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"British scientists have analysed samples from the victims of the attack. These have tested positive for Sarin or a Sarin-like substance.

"The UK, the US and all our key allies are of one mind: we believe that this was highly likely to be an attack by Assad, on his own people, using poison gas weapons that were banned almost 100 years ago, under the 1925 Geneva protocol."